Gay marriage on ballot in 4 states

Gay marriage is on the ballot in four states on Tuesday and could give advocates a victory that has long eluded them — a statewide vote in favor of same-sex nuptials.

Both sides have fought expensive battles over whether to legalize gay marriage in Maine, Maryland, Washington state and Minnesota, all Democratic-leaning states on the presidential level that are expected to go blue in that race. Polls show the battles tightening in all four, but there appear to be majorities supporting gay marriage in Maine and Maryland, where the state’s governor, Martin O’Malley, has helped finesse a strong campaign.

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Gay marriage has been a subtext of the 2012 presidential campaign for the last six months, after President Barack Obama’s hand was forced on the issue by his vice president getting “ahead of his skis” on a Sunday morning talk show and declaring his own support for legalizing same-sex marriage.

Obama risked damaging his post-partisan brand, and ire from his liberal base, by staying silent on the issue, although some Democrats feared he could still turn off conservative voting demographics like Hispanic evangelicals with his open support for same-sex marriage in May.

A win at the ballot box would be historic for gay activists — and a loss would be a major setback ahead of two major U.S. Supreme Court decisions involving gay marriage. Conservatives are equally motivated, with the National Organization for Marriage mounting a strong campaign against the ballot initiatives in all four states.

“Whether or not there should be civil rights for gay people should not be on the ballot, but we’re participating because it is, and that’s the law,” said well-known gay-rights activist Richard Socarides. “If even in this environment we still lost all four of those, it would be a significant setback and we would have to re-evaluate the state by state strategy.”

Great, this should bring out the voters, which means Barry could lose all four states.

I wish this had been on the ballot in my state. We voted it down sometime back. But if it had come up again, I'd have gotten the chance to vote down Barry and the queers. It isn't ofen that such a twofer comes along.

I wish this had been on the ballot in my state. We voted it down sometime back. But if it had come up again, I'd have gotten the chance to vote down Barry and the queers. It isn't ofen that such a twofer comes along.

It's not big government's job to restrict rights from things you find disgusting. It's time to get big government out of our bedrooms and relationships.

"Marriage should remain a religious institution, and civil unions should be how the government hands out the licenses. Everyone's happy."

Exactly. Or that's at least what you'd hope, but religious conservatives aren't happy until they use big government to force us all to follow their religious views. That's the problem, they will never understand a perspective of smaller government and less government regulation of our private lives on issues like this.

I live in Washington State, we have two very Libertarian measures on the ballot, one to stop discrimination in marriage based on sexual identity, the other to legalize marijuana. I'm hoping both pass, it's looking good for them. Less government in our our private lives and more freedom!

If you think that two gays being married to each other somehow affects your life then you must not have much of a life. And no surprise that one of the usual conservative windbags is here spouting dumb comments about animal marriage.

Since 2004, six states have legalized same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, Notice that there have been absolutely no consequences to anyone except those getting married.

Ten years from now no one will be able to remember what the fuss was all about.

Boy have you got that one backwards! . It's you who is the malicious meddler.

It's your community that is seeking to destroy cultural institutions. Were that not the case you would accept the 'civil union' comproise rahter than insisting upon calling it marriage and undermining the institution of marriage.

Yours is a fundamentally dishonest argument. This is an assault of the institution of the nuclear family.

"Boy have you got that one backwards! . It's you who is the malicious meddler.

It's your community that is seeking to destroy cultural institutions. Were that not the case you would accept the 'civil union' comproise rahter than insisting upon calling it marriage and undermining the institution of marriage.

Yours is a fundamentally dishonest argument. This is an assault of the institution of the nuclear family."

Apparently you are confused as to who my people are, they are Libertarians, and I very much support civil unions--for all straight and gay couples. Big government should get out of the marriage business altogether. There is no Constitutional role for government to protect the nuclear family or cultural instututions. I want to shrink the , cost and scope of government, where you want to give big government more power over our private lives and personal decisions. I stand on the side of freedom.

If Mark Twain had ever been asked to offer his thoughts on the subject, I feel his response would have been: "I don't care who marries who or who has sex with who as long as they don't scare the horses."

"SeattleDan, is well, a queer from Seattle. Seattle: an immoral as it can get, God forsaken hell hole. Bathhouse Barry would feel quite at home there."

Really? You think calling someone a queer is going to fly as an argument on a political forum? How stupid are you? How hard is it to understand the Libertarian perspective? We want less government. We want to pay less taxes to government. We want to have less government regulation of business. And we want to have less government regulation of our personal lives, rights and freedoms.